Okay, just going to give a short version of the intro right quick: His name is Nick and he just recently moved to a new town where he saw a strange light strike him. It caused him to see monsters in short flashes of vision which cause him to go insane. He runs up the stairs of the hotel and peers down from the roof to the ground. He then jumps. A big cloud of smoke rises, and he stands up in a cloak. This is when the game begins. I am wondering if the suicide attempt could be taken the wrong way by people. What would be your thoughts on this? (Not that it matters too heavily, but it is a 2D platformer.)

If I am taking the scene as you described it, then in my opinion, it is an ingenious intro and it shows your use of imagination. However, to honestly answer your question, yes; some audiences (such as the parents of younger children) may misinterpret it and needless to say, that is where you could run into problems. You should always think about the audience that you want to target (i.e. children, teens, adults etc.) and then construct your plot accordingly. On my part though, keep up the good work!

Thank you a lot for your opinion. The game is targeted for older audiences, probably 17 and up. So this scene shouldn't be too bad for them, I was still asking, though as we all know how well people listen to the ESRB and other organizations and warnings by the developers.

I suppose it depends on how you animate the 'jump'.

If you portray a character who appears to make a conscious decision to end his life (for illustration - such as him standing calmly, observing, then closing his eyes and falling off), it could be problematic as the thought "suicide" will hit pretty much anyone watching.

However, if you play on the "insanity" card, and make the jump looks like an irrational, insanity-driven, desperate move to end the nightmare (such as the character pacing wildly over the rooftop, holding his head and throwing himself off the building in the same state), the suicide connotations largely go away. The character was obviously not thinking clearly at the moment, and the whole cliche suicide scene at the rooftop was avoided.

From what I gathered out of your brief script, it looks like the former scene is much closer to what you intended to make. Unless you really want to add some awkward personality twist to the character and the actual suicide decision is relevant, I would suggest changing that part to something similar to the latter scene I described.

On the other hand, if that single 'decision' to jump is really that important for the story and character, then just go for it. It's hardly the most controversial thing you can see in a video game nowadays anyway. No matter how you intend to market it, I doubt it would have some sort of a disastrous effect upon your playerbase - especially if you make up for it with the rest of the story.

Quote: Original post by Talin
I suppose it depends on how you animate the 'jump'.

If you portray a character who appears to make a conscious decision to end his life (for illustration - such as him standing calmly, observing, then closing his eyes and falling off), it could be problematic as the thought "suicide" will hit pretty much anyone watching.

However, if you play on the "insanity" card, and make the jump looks like an irrational, insanity-driven, desperate move to end the nightmare (such as the character pacing wildly over the rooftop, holding his head and throwing himself off the building in the same state), the suicide connotations largely go away. The character was obviously not thinking clearly at the moment, and the whole cliche suicide scene at the rooftop was avoided.

From what I gathered out of your brief script, it looks like the former scene is much closer to what you intended to make. Unless you really want to add some awkward personality twist to the character and the actual suicide decision is relevant, I would suggest changing that part to something similar to the latter scene I described.

On the other hand, if that single 'decision' to jump is really that important for the story and character, then just go for it. It's hardly the most controversial thing you can see in a video game nowadays anyway. No matter how you intend to market it, I doubt it would have some sort of a disastrous effect upon your playerbase - especially if you make up for it with the rest of the story.

The jump is more like the second one. He basically kicks the door down, runs to the edge, then jumps. There wasn't too much of a pause, just a quick glance down before he jumped. And I wasn't too worried about this part turning away fanbase, just worried it'll make a few people mad. It is actually aimed closer to crowds who enjoyed games like Devil May Cry or Megaman Zero/ZX (friend pointed out gameplay similarities to these ones, but it is a lot more mature story-wise).

I don't really think you'll have any problems in that case.

Again, thank you for your opinions, and am glad of what you all thought.